This is a theory and policy paper designed to facilitate debate about the emerging and evolving relationship between the public and private policing sectors. The so‐called pluralization of policing is gathering momentum. New models are required that take into account the blurring of what have been conventionally considered parallel systems, with private security as very much the ‘'lesser'’ or junior entity. The paper introduces a number of Australian examples into the debate, and develops a set of descriptive models to account for, and explain, the main types of existing and emerging relationships. The paper then presents a prescriptive model to support the view that caution should temper any push towards a totally symbiotic cooperation between public and private policing. The best relationship for the future, it concludes, may be one that maintains a basic separation of powers, with some operational cooperation only where it is deemed essential and where oversight can be provided by executive‐level standing committees.